Feature

Signal offers powerful artificial intelligence to help make the unknown, known.

Share This Page

In
December, Hearst Ventures participated in the Series A round of funding for
Signal Media, an artificial intelligence-powered information company that helps
its clients monitor the world’s news media. Below, Signal CEO David Benigson shares more about the platform’s revolutionary technology and helping
businesses make smarter and faster decisions.

How does Signal
track and monitor news cycles across global markets?

David Benigson: Signal is an
artificial intelligence company with the goal of transforming the world’s news
into accessible, actionable bits of knowledge. We apply cutting-edge technology
that we have developed here, in house, to enable clients to monitor the news
for whatever they deem important: company mentions, client news, trending
storylines and more. Our motoring tool analyzes news in real time across over
100 markets and 40 different languages. We are trying to bring clarity to the
news and get users the information they need to know, along with information
they didn’t even know they needed.

Co-Founders Miguel Martinez and David Benigson created Signal to transform the world’s information into accessible, actionable business knowledge.

What types of
clients does Signal serve?

Benigson: We have found
success with clients across a range of fields—from big financial institutions
to communications firms. One of our initial areas of focus was transforming the
way public relations departments work and receive coverage concerning their
brands. Increasingly, we are seeing the value of our service diversify into
areas that are beyond the scope of our initial plans, including client
intelligence, horizon scanning, and regulatory change.

Ultimately,
we enable our users to search for companies, topics and themes of interest.
This provides them with the ability to track their reputation, understand wider
market insights and operate more effectively across the board.

How do you see
clients most effectively using Signal on a daily basis?

Benigson: Let’s take a big
wealth management firm as an example: Previously, they were only able to track
mentions of themselves in the news. Today, they are able to not only monitor
each of the subdivisions of their very large company, but also monitor their
competition, key spokespeople, clients and key trending topics that impact the
regulation of their business. And they are able to do all of this within our
single platform.

What
we have been able to do is allow our clients to have specific and narrow
searches which provide only relevant information. Our search results give a
holistic view of the interests of the company and the sphere in which they are
operating. Additionally, users are getting this information in real time and
from all across the globe.

Can you share
some details about the experiences that led you to create Signal?

Benigson: Initially,I studied law and then worked with a
few startups. After that, I worked with chef Jamie Oliver, who himself created
a media company. I founded Signal when I was 24 years old, so I had very little
direct managing experience. The process of launching a company has been both
amazing and challenging. I’ve learned so much over the past three and half
years as the company has scaled up.

The
original idea for Signal came from speaking with people in the industry about
how they were receiving news every day and what tools they were using to obtain
that information. It rapidly became clear that there was a big gap in the
market for a tool that could more effectively help people make sense of the
vast and ever-growing web of information available online.

What makes Signal
different from the other services that are offered in this field?

Benigson: It really starts
with our artificial intelligence technology. Signal is looking to automate
things that have, up until now, been done manually. Artificial intelligence
means that, in a sense, we can be uniquely ambitious. There are millions and
millions of new documents added to the internet each day, and processing that
data and connecting that information to users in real time is only possible
because of our powerful, intelligent technology.

On
top of that, our user experience and customer service is a real draw. We have
spent a lot of time thinking about what happens when a client is trying to work
with Signal, and we want to make that process as frictionless as possible. Our
strength is that we are able to combine the power of our technology with the
human experience of using our platform. Because of that, our product delivers
an unparalleled experience that sets us apart from the competition.

Signal provides businesses the information they need to know to help make smarter, faster decisions.

Signal has
evolved a great deal in the past few years, achieving 500 percent YOY growth
from 2015 to 2016. How have your teams worked to iterate on the initial
concept?

Benigson: We have gone
through quite seismic changes since developing the initial concept, and we are
now servicing around 100 corporate clients. Signal has concentrated on adding
value to our users by identifying what they continue to struggle with when it
comes to monitoring their brands. We want to provide end-to-end solutions, so
we continue to seek user feedback. Signal has employed user-centric design
processes that ensure we have regular interactions with our clients—this all
feeds directly into the product development process.

Who makes up the
Signal team?

Benigson: Our team has
grown to around 50 people. Two years ago there were only 10 of us, so we are
expanding rather quickly. Half of the team is made up of product developers,
tech engineers and data scientists, and the other half is made up of sales,
marketing and client relations employees. Our latest round of fundraising will
allow us to invest in both of these key areas at a larger scale.

How are you
working to secure more clients based outside of the U.K.?

Benigson: Signal has a
small operation already running in New York, but we want to continue scaling
that up. We see the U.S. as being the largest and most attractive market for
us, and we are extremely keen to make that work. We are always working with our
sales and marketing teams to improve how we reach people outside of our current
core areas.

What’s next for
Signal in 2017?

Benigson: We are continuing
to expand the data sets that we use, including in the legislative and research
fields. The broader the selection of data we aggregate, the more we are able to
apply our products to people in large organizations. We are also looking to
launch new products on top of our core platform. Right now, we are gearing up
to launch a specific product that allows our clients to track changes in
regulation as they happen, helping them to remain compliant. We also have a
mobile app that we are preparing to launch, as well as a few new tools within
the platform itself.

From the Signal
perspective, what are some of the biggest benefits to your partnership with
Hearst?

Benigson: A big part of
Signal’s platform is how we leverage news media, and there is no better
organization at the edge of innovation in news distribution than Hearst. They
have offered unparalleled strategic advice when it comes to our expansion and
how to leverage technology to get the most value. I also think that when
looking at U.S. expansion, Hearst will be a key player in helping us build a
network. We are really excited for the opportunity to work with, and learn
from, the Hearst Ventures team.